As a socialist anarchist, I would like to maximize the ability of individuals to live their lives freely within communities. I see complex interactions among various levels, from the individual up to various local social and governmental groups and institutions and beyond to larger scale social and governmental institutions. The kind of socialist anarchism that I advocate tries to develop a comprehensive analysis of the power relationships at all levels; one of the weaknesses of libertarianism, for instance, as a social anarchist would see it, is its obsession with the limitation of government, when there are a lot of other social institutions which can be just as oppressive; at times, government is useful as a countervailing power against the oppressive power of other aspects of society. This sounds very abstract, but socialist anarchism is suspicious of too much abstraction and grows out of the examination of particular problems; it also tries to retain the flexibility to respond to differences rather than making a one-size-fits-all theory. I can get more specific, but this is enough for now.
As a socialist anarchist, I would like to maximize the ability of individuals to live their lives freely within communities. I see complex interactions among various levels, from the individual up to various local social and governmental groups and institutions and beyond to larger scale social and governmental institutions. The kind of socialist anarchism that I advocate tries to develop a comprehensive analysis of the power relationships at all levels; one of the weaknesses of libertarianism, for instance, as a social anarchist would see it, is its obsession with the limitation of government, when there are a lot of other social institutions which can be just as oppressive; at times, government is useful as a countervailing power against the oppressive power of other aspects of society. This sounds very abstract, but socialist anarchism is suspicious of too much abstraction and grows out of the examination of particular problems; it also tries to retain the flexibility to respond to differences rather than making a one-size-fits-all theory. I can get more specific, but this is enough for now.